1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable cooling chests and, more particularly, to portable cooling chests having cooling coils detachably attached in fluid communication with the refrigerant of an air conditioner to cool eutectic fluid disposed in a cavity within the side walls of the cooling chest.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advent of lightweight plastics and insulating materials, it has become well known to construct portable cooling chests from these lightweight and durable materials for purposes of maintaining the contents of the chests at low temperatures for a period of time, such as several hours. The most widely used cooling chests are merely insulated boxes capable of holding food and beverages and a heat absorption element such as ice or similar chilled material. To extend the operative period of cooling chests and avoid complete reliance upon the availability of ice or the like, various cooling chests having external heat absorption units have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,060 describes a cooler having a refrigeration unit and a power system incorporated as part of the portable cooler itself. U.S. Pat. No. 3,505,830 discloses a cooler connected to the evaporator housing of an air conditioning system within an automobile to channel cool air into the cooler. Other similar but non-portable coolers are known which are separably connected between the evaporator unit and the compressor-condenser unit of an air conditioning system, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,630,688 and 2,540,649. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,041,852 discloses a non-portable external cooler permanently connected to a conventional home refrigerator. U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,006 describes a portable cooler having a cooling unit disposed centrally within the cooler and connectable to an automobile air conditioner. The cooler disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,006 severely limits the storage capacity of the cooler because the cooling unit imposes upon and reduces the storage arrangement and volume of the chest.